Summary
Summary of The Christ Myth
The Christ Myth at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 5 h 55 min4 h 40 min fast, 7 h slow
- Length
- 84,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1909by Arthur Drews
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of The Christ Myth, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Drews questions the man behind Christianity
Arthur Drews begins with a question: what if the man at the center of Christianity never walked the roads of Galilee? He rejects the liberal picture of Jesus as a gentle moral teacher because he thinks it rests on guesswork.
His argument follows two paths. First, he looks for a savior god before the Gospels. Then he asks what Paul and the Gospels actually reveal about a human Jesus. The distinction between religious belief and historical evidence guides his whole case.
Key idea 2
The Messiah took shape before the Gospels
Drews traces the Christian Messiah back through Persian and Jewish expectations.
Start free to read
Key idea 3
Philosophy supplied a bridge to God
As Jews encountered Greek philosophy, God became more spiritual and remote.
Start free to read
Key idea 4
A suffering savior had older patterns
Drews places the suffering Messiah beside ancient stories of gods who died and rose again.
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Christian rites have older religious relatives
The child hidden from a murderous ruler, the sacred birth and the shared holy meal all lead Drews toward older religious practices.
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Paul preaches revelation rather than remembered teaching
Turning to Paul, Drews asks what the earliest Christian witness says about a human Jesus.
Start free to read
Key idea 7
The Gospels express a community's faith
Drews treats the Gospels as writings intended to create belief in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, rather than careful biographies.
Start free to read
Key idea 8
A human Jesus served Church authority
Why would a divine savior become a historical man in Christian teaching?
Start free to read
Key idea 9
Each proposed connection needs its evidence
Drews brings several streams together: Persian hopes, Jewish apocalypses, Greek philosophy and the rites of dying gods.
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest free
Who it’s for
This book suits readers who enjoy bold arguments about the roots of religion, and anyone who wants a much debated case about Christian origins in its own terms.
What this book is
What if the man at the center of Christianity never walked the roads of Galilee? In 1910 the German philosopher Arthur Drews put that question to the public in The Christ Myth, and the storm that followed filled newspapers, lecture halls and even a circus tent in Berlin.
He thought the liberal picture of Jesus as a gentle moral teacher rested on guesswork. His case runs in two parts: a savior god before the Gospels, then what Paul and the Gospels really tell us.
In this summary
- 1Drews questions the man behind ChristianityFree
- 2The Messiah took shape before the Gospels
- 3Philosophy supplied a bridge to God
- 4A suffering savior had older patterns
- 5Christian rites have older religious relatives
- 6Paul preaches revelation rather than remembered teaching
- 7The Gospels express a community's faith
- 8A human Jesus served Church authority
- 9Each proposed connection needs its evidence
An anxious age was ready for a savior
Drews opens with Seneca, the Roman philosopher who died in 65. Seneca urges his readers to choose a good man and keep him always before their eyes. Drews takes this as a sign of how strongly the age longed for a divine pattern of goodness.
Rome had crushed old nations, wars had left many dead, and the old philosophy had run out of answers. Emperor worship fed the same hope. An inscription at Priene calls Augustus a savior sent by providence and says his birthday brought the good news, using the Greek word that gives us gospel.
Many also expected the world to end, and people no longer trusted the old national religions. They turned to gods from across the East and to small private brotherhoods. Drews argues that a new faith needed no single founder, because the ground was prepared on every side. Christianity grew in an age already hungry for a god who saves.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Check yourself
How does Drews explain the origins of the Christian Messiah?
Right. “The Messiah of Christian belief was largely shaped by Persian and Jewish expectation.”Not quite. “The Messiah of Christian belief was largely shaped by Persian and Jewish expectation.”
What does Drews emphasize about Paul's source for his gospel?
Right. “Paul says Christ appeared to him in a vision and that his gospel came by revelation, not from any human teacher.”Not quite. “Paul says Christ appeared to him in a vision and that his gospel came by revelation, not from any human teacher.”
What religious goal does Drews pursue by questioning a historical Jesus?
Right. “Drews wanted to rescue the idea of redemption by freeing it from a single historical person.”Not quite. “Drews wanted to rescue the idea of redemption by freeing it from a single historical person.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Christ Myth
About 6 h 10 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 84,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 55 min
Questions about The Christ Myth
What is The Christ Myth by Arthur Drews about?
It argues that belief in Christ grew out of older savior myths, Jewish sects and the mission of Paul, and that no historical Jesus is needed to explain Christianity. Drews also examines the Gospels and the liberal theology of his day.
Did Arthur Drews say Jesus never existed?
Drews holds that the Jesus of the Gospels is a mythical figure and that nothing reliable is known of any man behind him. He allows that some Jesus might have lived, but says such a person would matter little.
Why does Drews say Paul matters more than Jesus?
He claims Paul gives no detailed account of a human teacher's life, treats the few sayings as community rules, and preaches a heavenly Christ who dies and rises. In his view Paul, through his ideas and energy, founded Christianity as a new religion.
When was The Christ Myth written and who answered it?
The first edition appeared in 1909 and the third edition in 1910. Theologians such as Weinel, Bornemann, von Soden and Beth answered with pamphlets, and public meetings were held against it in Berlin.
Is The Christ Myth easy to follow for a general reader?
Drews writes as a philosopher addressing educated readers, and the book moves in clear steps from ancient religion to Paul to the Gospels. Each chapter takes one theme, so you can follow the argument section by section.
Cite this edition
Drews, Arthur. The Christ Myth. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-christ-myth.
Drews, A. (2026). The Christ myth. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-christ-myth (Original work published 1909)
Drews, Arthur. The Christ Myth. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-christ-myth.
@book{drews2026christ,
author = {Drews, Arthur},
title = {The Christ Myth},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-christ-myth},
note = {First published 1909}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of The Christ Myth, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
